Abstract:It has been reported that consumers in different countries have distinctive perceptions of, and attitudes to, products. This study investigated consumers’ thoughts on new food products in south‐east England (n = 222) and Beijing, China (n = 139), using a questionnaire‐based largely on the Theory of Reasoned Action. Results indicated that consumers in both countries believe it is necessary for the food industry in their respective countries to introduce new food products and they would like to try new products.… Show more
“…In other words, these consumption behaviours may not indicate social status so that they are not greatly influenced by other people's opinions. Similarly, Eves and Cheng (2007) found that Chinese consumers' personal beliefs were more important in intention to purchase new food products than the influences of other people, which did not support their expected results that the Chinese would place more emphasis on others' opinions than on their own beliefs due to China being a collectivist culture (Eves and Cheng, 2007). They reasoned that food is not an item of conspicuous consumption or a cultural shift among urban Chinese (Eves and Cheng, 2007).…”
The over‐saturated dietary supplement (DS) market in developed countries such as the US spurs the need for foreign market expansion, and the Chinese market provides a great potential for the foreign soy‐based DS industry. This study examined Chinese consumers' intention to use imported (US‐made US‐brand) soy‐based DS based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Two alternative models were also examined in which Chinese dietary culture variables, including soyfoods favourability and dining‐out sociability, as well as their interactions with attitudes, were integrated into the TPB model. A cross‐sectional, self‐administered survey was conducted with a sample of 215 subjects (137 females; 78 males) in Shanghai, China. The TPB variables attitude, subjective norm, perceived behaviour control and behavioural intention, as well as the Chinese dietary culture variables: soyfoods favourability and dine‐out sociability were measured. Multiple linear regressions were used to analyze the three models. The statistical results indicated that all three models were statistically significant to predict intention (Model 1: R2 = 0.473, P < 0.001; Model 2: R2 = 0.505, P < 0.001; Model 3: R2 = 0.525, P < 0.001). The results also showed that attitude, perceived behavioural control, and dine‐out sociability were significant (positive) determinants of intention. Soyfoods favourability acted a significant (negative) moderator of the relationship between attitude and intention. Subjective norm had no significant impact on intention. In conclusion, the TPB model was useful to predict Chinese consumers' intention to use imported soy‐based DS, but not all the TPB components weighed significantly in exploring DS consumption in China. The selected Chinese dietary culture variables were much more important predictors than subjective norm. This study makes a significant contribution in the application of the TPB model and in market strategy development for imported dietary supplements in China.
“…In other words, these consumption behaviours may not indicate social status so that they are not greatly influenced by other people's opinions. Similarly, Eves and Cheng (2007) found that Chinese consumers' personal beliefs were more important in intention to purchase new food products than the influences of other people, which did not support their expected results that the Chinese would place more emphasis on others' opinions than on their own beliefs due to China being a collectivist culture (Eves and Cheng, 2007). They reasoned that food is not an item of conspicuous consumption or a cultural shift among urban Chinese (Eves and Cheng, 2007).…”
The over‐saturated dietary supplement (DS) market in developed countries such as the US spurs the need for foreign market expansion, and the Chinese market provides a great potential for the foreign soy‐based DS industry. This study examined Chinese consumers' intention to use imported (US‐made US‐brand) soy‐based DS based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Two alternative models were also examined in which Chinese dietary culture variables, including soyfoods favourability and dining‐out sociability, as well as their interactions with attitudes, were integrated into the TPB model. A cross‐sectional, self‐administered survey was conducted with a sample of 215 subjects (137 females; 78 males) in Shanghai, China. The TPB variables attitude, subjective norm, perceived behaviour control and behavioural intention, as well as the Chinese dietary culture variables: soyfoods favourability and dine‐out sociability were measured. Multiple linear regressions were used to analyze the three models. The statistical results indicated that all three models were statistically significant to predict intention (Model 1: R2 = 0.473, P < 0.001; Model 2: R2 = 0.505, P < 0.001; Model 3: R2 = 0.525, P < 0.001). The results also showed that attitude, perceived behavioural control, and dine‐out sociability were significant (positive) determinants of intention. Soyfoods favourability acted a significant (negative) moderator of the relationship between attitude and intention. Subjective norm had no significant impact on intention. In conclusion, the TPB model was useful to predict Chinese consumers' intention to use imported soy‐based DS, but not all the TPB components weighed significantly in exploring DS consumption in China. The selected Chinese dietary culture variables were much more important predictors than subjective norm. This study makes a significant contribution in the application of the TPB model and in market strategy development for imported dietary supplements in China.
“…Previous studies (Kim et al, 2006;Eves and Cheng, 2007) have confirmed that 5-point Likert scales are comprehensible with Chinese consumers, and widely applied in Chinese food consumption studies (Sun and Collins, 2002;Eves and Cheng, 2007). Hence, it was decided to use such scales to evaluate the strength of respondents' agreement to the statements in the survey instrument.…”
This research aims to investigate the important attitudes, demographics and segmentation of potential consumers' purchase intentions of organic food in urban China. The survey instrument was designed based on validated measures and three focus group interviews. Data were collected at supermarkets in the major cities which yielded 935 usable responses. The 23 attributes that measured attitudes were factor analysed and five dimensions were generated. Of these, the strongest dimension was 'Certification' which accounted for 24.7% of the total variance of 58.4% explained by the five dimensions. This dimension included food safety, government regulations and correct labelling. Chinese consumers are highly concerned about food safety issues relating to personal health. The findings also revealed that gender, age and educational level had no significant relationship in influencing the purchase intentions. However, income, attitudes and pre-purchase intentions all demonstrated weak to moderate significant correlations with purchase intentions of organic food. Gender moderated the relationship between attitudes and purchase intentions. Finally, a cluster analysis was performed which generated three distinct clusters, which we named safety conscious, gastronomes and sceptics. The distinctive features of the profiles of these three clusters are discussed in the paper. The findings of this study have important implications to all stakeholders of the organic food industry, in particular to foreign firms that intend to export organic food to China.
“…In general, considerable differences exist between cultures in terms of the perception of attractiveness of food from other cultures [67]. For Chinese consumers, food that is different in taste, culture and quality is fashionable and desirable [102]. However, not all Chinese visitors are eager to try local food.…”
Segmentation has several strategic and tactical implications in marketing products and services. Despite hard clustering methods having several weaknesses, they remain widely applied in marketing studies. Alternative segmentation methods such as fuzzy methods are rarely used to understand consumer behaviour. In this study, we propose a strategy of analysis, by combining the Bagged Clustering (BC) method and the fuzzy C-means clustering method for fuzzy data (FCM-FD), i.e., the Bagged fuzzy C-means clustering method for fuzzy data (BFCM-FD). The method inherits the advantages of stability and reproducibility from BC and the flexibility from FCM-FD. The method is applied on a sample of 328 Chinese consumers revealing the existence of four segments (Admirers, Enthusiasts, Moderates, and Apathetics) of the perceived images of Western Europe as a tourist destination. The results highlight the heterogeneity in Chinese consumers' place preferences and implications for place marketing are offered.
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